My Entry Into @aggroed's Minnow Steemfest Contest

I already entered @steemfestdreams's and @theprophet0's contests, however since I am still a minnow (and still a poor college kid), I figured why not enter @aggroed's as well. This entry talks more about WHO I AM and WHAT I'D BRING to STEEMFEST. Enjoy :)

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My Bio: Who is @robertdurst10?

Hello, my name is Rob and I am @robertdurst10 -- a 21 year old unattached college student chasing the crypto dream from my parent's home in Northern California. Yep, I hear you, what the Hell am I doing with my life? Well, I'll explain how I got here.

I led a pretty normal life up until my junior year of high school (with the exception of being an avid ice hockey player). Junior year was the year coding entered my life. For a reason I cannot remember, I began coding simple "if-then" games on my TI-84 calculator during math class. The following year I enrolled in my first CS class.

Enthusiastic about my chances of playing college hockey, I took a postgraduate (5th) year of high school at Phillips Exeter. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise -- Exeter had an incredible CS department. I continued taking CS classes here, although not very seriously. I was still going to be a college hockey player.

The next year I began studying at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Two months into college, I was cut from the hockey team and that dream came to an abrupt halt. Now what? Well, now I turned all my focus to CS. The following summer I landed an iOS dev internship in Australia and I was on fire. However, this "fire" was nothing compared to that of late winter 2016.

Winter 2016 I signed up for a blockchain competition put on by my school and a local tech consulting company. Realizing the potential of blockchain I quickly found myself spending many hours in research tangents, at this point not 100% concerned with the competition. From there things began to take off. I:

• Won the blockchain competition
• Discovered Steemit
• Attended the MIT Bitcoin Expo
• Published BitSee (featured on CryptoCompare newsletter)
• Began working on SteemEngine

By the end of the school year, I got myself a sweet blockchain summer internship and had plans to stay on campus with friends. However, those plans quickly came crashing down. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I found myself back at home and on a leave of absence from college for the 2017-2018 school year. Fuck me, right?

Well, things seem to happen for a reason. Not only do I now have the time to work on some personal things, but I can fully dedicate myself to working on SteemEngine and enjoying the blockchain revolution (while living just outside of Silicon Valley).

So, yes I am an unattached 21 year old chasing the crypto dream from my parent's home in Northern California. But, life is not all that bad.

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My Toolbox: What I Will Bring to STEEMFest

1) SteemEngine

The main thing I will be able to bring to SteemFest is SteemEngine. I am hoping to develop a Beta version of SteemEngine for demonstration at SteemFest. It has always been my dream to make a Steve Jobs-esque product demonstration, and while I know that SteemFest is not quite WWDC, I would LOVE the opportunity to demonstrate SteemEngine in front of the Steemit Community!

What is SteemEngine?
SteemEngine is a Google Chrome extension allowing easy Steem integration into web applications so developers can give Steem owners a place to use their money. This is achieved by creating a seamless connection between web apps and the Steem blockchain allowing developers to develop applications without having to deal with distributed ledger technology. With SteemEngine, end-users will be given options to use their cryptocurrency in its native form (without EVER exposing their keys and with the option to act anonymously).

2) Software Dev Skills

Over the last few years, I have worked with numerous languages on a variety of projects:

• Mobile Dev (iOS)
  

  Crave

  
  
  I have worked on three apps over the last couple years: Delivery Rocket Mobile (Australian startup), Spa Mobile Ordering (student union food ordering platform for my school), and Crave (friend's startup). The only one that was published to the app store is Crave. I was a part of the two person team that helped the prototype launch on the app store, however soon after, my friend found a much more experienced iOS dev to "poof it up" a bit.

Website available here.

• Web Dev
  

  Disrupt Colby Website

  
  
  As part of the web dev class I took last semester, I had to make a final website that showcased the skills we learned in class. I'll admit this site is pretty primitive. However, I was awarded the 100%. I have learned quite a bit since I finished this project but this was the first website I ever published!

Website available here.

Languages I Know: Python, Java, Swift, JS, CSS, HTML - My GitHub Account

3) Cryptography (and collegiate level mathematics) Knowledge

(Un)Fortunately I was talked into majoring in mathematics... and not just adding number mathematics but abstract mathematics, i.e. doing proofs for fun about concepts that cannot be drawn or even visualized by the human mind. While this has been a challenging journey so far, it has also been very rewarding. This last semester I took a class in cryptography. Man, what an incredible class! I learned about the basic stuff like Caesar ciphers and some of the modern day stuff like elliptic curve cryptography (think Bitcoin). For my final project, I coded up a Blind Digital Signature Voting Scheme Demonstration. Theoretically this allows people to anonymously cast verifiable votes. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. I will be able to bring this knowledge to SteemFest, allowing me to offer some wisdom behind blockchain tech security to those of you who like to say "it is secure because of some crazy math that no one understands."


Code available here.

4) Ideas

After using Steemit for the past four months, I have come up with many ideas and insights that I would love to share with fellow Steemians! But, I do not just want to toss around ideas in the abstract, I want to work with fellow steem-devs to make some of my ideas a reality. Thus, I am incredibly excited that @charlieshrem is putting on a hackathon during the beginning of SteemFest! I have been to a few hackathons in my life (every single one was an incredible learning, experimenting, and rewarding event):

• CBB Hacks
• Colby Hacks
• HackHolyoke
• ID Hack

I hope to bring my hackathon experience, enthusiasm, and ideas to the SteemFest Hackathon!

5) Enthusiasm for the Steemit Community

Even just in my small social circle, I have done my best to spread the word of Steemit:

On Facebook

And Via Stickers

6) An Adventurous Mindset with Uncanny Optimism

I love to travel and explore without limiting myself to any expectations. Often times this ends in unreal experiences:



I bring this free flowing optimism with me wherever I go and I will certainly bring this to Lisbon!

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The Details: A Budget

So far I have cashed out about $400 of Steem and usually am able to get $50 everytime I power down. So, I will be able to cover hotel costs, in country travel, food, etc. However, I will be unable to cover the cost of the flight. Here are the best flights according to Google:

So, I am asking for: $900-$1100. I am unfortunately a poor college kid so trips like this are not totally realistic without some help :)

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Conclusion

Over the past four months, Steemit has become my main social media. Now that I have begun development on SteemEngine, it has become my main hobby as well. Attending STEEMFest 2 would be an incredible opportunity that I would be eternally grateful for. I hope you consider me! Thanks for reading, cheers, and Steem on!

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